Two People
by AnimeFan202
Summary: There was a time when we weren't Head and Branch. A time when we weren't older and younger. There was a time when we were just two people. Hiashi muses on a time when status didn't matter and circumstances held no meaning.


**Two People**

When we were younger, no one could tell us apart. We were twins after all, and identical ones at that. Hiashi and Hizashi… How many times had someone mistaken one of us for the other? Messed up one of our names? But that was back when it didn't matter. We were just two people.

We were five years old when Hizashi got branded. I was young, but I'll never forget that day. Or, rather, the day after, when the doctors told me he was cleared to have visitors, but Hizashi refused to see me. I was hurt and confused. Before that day, I'd done practically nothing without my brother by my side.

But then my elders started grooming me for my role as head of the Hyuga Clan. I had extra lessons, private meetings. And I started seeing Hizashi less and less.

Occasionally, I'd catch a glimpse of his eyes, watching me from some partially-concealed place. They were different eyes: bitter ones. But ones that I still recognized as my younger brother's. I have to think that a part of Hizashi wanted to be found, because he wasn't unskilled. Had he wanted to stay truly hidden, even I would have had no luck finding him. Which is why it wasn't as much of a surprise as it should have been when, on random, increasingly rare occurences, I'd catch sight of his old eyes. The ones that gazed at me with the kind of mutual respect and trust that we'd always had for each other.

I'd tried smiling at him once. He refused to look at me.

I'd attempted to get him alone to talk to him. It felt like everyone else in the family was conspiring to keep us apart.

To this day, there's a little voice in my head telling me that maybe I didn't try hard enough. The Hyuga residence is only so big. In all those years I couldn't manage a private conversation with him even once?

Our father died when we were sixteen. It was early, but I'd been deemed ready to take over as head of the family by then. Throughout the entire ceremony, I don't think the scowl once left my brother's face.

Surely as head of the family it was possible for me to meet with Hizashi now. There's no excuse for my cowardice. I couldn't deny it anymore. Now I was the one avoiding him. I was scared to see the hatred that had come to take over my beloved twin's soul. It hurt all the more to know I was responsible for such feelings.

We didn't reconnect. All the same, life went on. Time passed. I watched his son grow nearly as carefully as I observed my own daughter. Neji looked so much like us at that age. Through my nephew, it was like the old Hizashi was brought back to life. The kind, sweet, caring one who turned to me for everything. It didn't pass by me that a piece of that puzzle was still missing, and that my true brother hadn't softened in the least.

Then came that fateful day. I wasn't bluffing. I was fully prepared to give up my life in order to protect my clan's fate, my family's. I don't pretend to delude myself that it wasn't a cruel suggestion that Hizashi take my place. Had he not gone along with it fullheartedly, I never would have forced him into it. I couldn't have possibly brought myself to do such a thing.

I saw something during my brother's last moments alive. As he said his final goodbye to me that day, I swear I saw a familiar little boy staring back at me. One I hadn't seen in more than two decades.

In the end, we weren't twins who'd been born into very fortunate and unfortunate positions. We weren't brothers who'd become painfully estranged over the course of our lives. It ended just as it had started: our lives had come full circle and everything had been put right.

In the end, we were just two people once more.

**Review please!**

**To be honest, I'm not sure what prompted me to write this. I've always had a fascination with the Hyuga family, and every once in a while an idea will just hit me. This was very drabblish, but I'm fairly proud of it. I'm in a bittersweet mood at the moment…**

**I don't own Naruto!**


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